Alan R.P. Journet Ph.D
Cofacilitator
Southern Oregon Climate Action Now
February 6th, 2026

SOCAN Testimony relating to HB4100

Chair Tran and members of the House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government and Veterans:

I write as cofacilitator of Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, an organization of some 2,000 Southern Oregonians who are concerned about the climate crisis and encourage state action to address it. As rural and coastal Southern Oregonians, we live on the frontlines of the warming, reducing snowpack, heatwaves, drought, rising sea level and the increasing wildfire risk that these trends conspire to impose on us. Because of this, we pay close attention to what is happening in the state legislature that relates to climate.

A few moments of reflection on the Portland Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub will reveal that this facility constitutes a serious problem. The uncontested series of Hub realities (e.g., Whitcomb 2024, Smith undated) indicate Portland and the state have a serious problem:

• The Hub comprises tanks that store 90% of Oregon’s liquid fuel and all the jet fuel used
  by the International Airport.
• Most of the tanks were built in the 1950s.
• The tanks are located on a substrate (soil) that will probably simply liquefy in the event
  of a sever seismic event causing their contents to escape into the surrounding
  community and nearby river.
• The likelihood that the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake will strike within a few
  decades is rising.
• Should the earthquake occur and destroy the hub, the environmental damage and
  greenhouse gas emissions will be devastating.
• Oregon Senate Bill 1567 (2022) drew attention to the problem several years ago, but the
  continuing threat tells us it’s time to do more.

Wilson (2024), the Clackamas County Resilience Coordinator with the Department of Disaster Management, opined that “During a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, these facilities will have cascading failures due to long-duration and long-period amplified shaking, that will produce liquefaction, differential settlement and lateral spreading – likely creating the worst oil spill in U.S. history.”

The question the Oregon legislature faces is simple: “Are we smart enough to recognize the problem and address it, or do we kick this can down the road again?”

Those of us living in rural Oregon may not be under the immediate threat from a seismic event destroying the hub, but, undoubtedly, we will suffer from its after-effects. In addition, it is inevitable that such an event will severely compromise the commitments that we have collectively made via the Climate Protection Program and other programs developed by the legislature to reduce Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions substantially by 2050.

The solution to the CEIH quandary, it sems to me, involves two approaches

• develop a mechanism whereby those living in the vicinity of the Hub are financial protected
  against a catastrophe, and
• reduce the danger by either retrofitting the tanks or by relocating them.

The bills before this committee are constructed to address these two prongs of a solution.

The second step towards addressing the problem seems logically to be seeking a mechanism that holds harmless those suffering financially should a conflagration and toxic leakage occur. The approach involving Liability Bonds seems entirely appropriate to achieve this objective.

Since the Energy Infrastructure Hub is singularly vulnerable to earthquakes and will likely contribute substantial damage to regional residents we strongly urge the legislature to pass HB 4100.

Respectfully Submitted
7113 Griffin Lane
Jacksonville
OR 97530-4182
alan@socan.eco
541-500-2331
541-301-4107

Sources Cited

Smith S. undated Overview of CEI Hub and CSZ Earthquake. Department of Environmental
Quality. https://www.oregon.gov/oem/Documents/OSSPAC_2022_07_CEI_Hub.pdf

Whitcomb I. 2024 Preventing the next ‘Fukushima.’ High Country News
https://www.hcn.org/issues/56-9/preventing-the-next-fukushima/

Wilson J. 2024 Oregon’s Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub – A Case Study. U.C. Davis College of
Engineering https://engineering.ucdavis.edu/events/oregons-critical-energy-infrastructurehub-
case-study